Abrasives, grindings, metal chips and other contaminant particles are common during the construction of ships. Such contaminant particles, when accumulated on the ship, can damage the ship's equipment.
These contaminant particles are transferred to all areas of the ship by foot traffic. Cleaning the contaminant particles admitted to an area sensitive thereto is time consuming and costly. If the footwear is cleaned prior to entering the area, clean-up requirements are reduced.
A common solution for preventing contamination transfer to these areas is a footwear cleaning mat. Such mats, however, do not effectively remove the contaminant particles, particularly metallic particles, from the footwear and the removed contaminant particles are not effectively transported away from the cleaning surfaces of the mat.
Accordingly, a device is needed for removing metallic, non-metallic, and other contaminant particles from footwear.